>> exactly, lester, israel is asking president obama to give iran the kind of specific ultimatum the administration officials would say tie the president's hands and remove any ambiguity of letting the iranians dictate the timetable for action. it would also bind u.s. military action to israel's assessment of when iran is passed that point of no return and their assessment is different from the cia's timetable. a lot of this friction, though, is rooted in the fact that these two leaders just do not trust each other. add the fact that the rest of the region is now in conflict and we're in the closing weeks of a presidential election and you have a volatile mix. >> let's talk about that election, andrea. i want to turn to john. four years ago it was candidate barack obama being attacked for a lack of foreign policy credentials. now he is the one in the oval office dealing with these volatile moving parts, and it's governor romney whose experience is being questioned. given what's happening right now on all these different fronts, could the president's advantage here be tenuous? >> lest